OREANDA-NEWS. September 28, 2010. It is possible to develop transplantation medicine in Belarus and to create new centers for the transplantation of organs and tissues, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said as he visited the National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Center on 28 September.

The medics said that the possibility of setting up transplantation centers and performing kidney transplantation surgeries in oblast centers is under consideration.

The head of state issued an instruction to build an organ and tissue transplantation center in his speech at the All-Belarusian Congress in 2005. “I was convinced that it is not the key problem today and this area is not so important. This is why I hesitated. It is a lot of money,” said Alexander Lukashenko. The President believes that the decision to build the center was the right one. “This area is advancing an entire stratum of healthcare and will give a boost to the entire healthcare industry, it moves healthcare forward like a railway engine,” said the head of state. “Then I made the decision that Belarus needs transplantation. The way to implement it and the scale of it may vary but it is necessary,” said the President.

Head of the National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Center Oleg Rummo said that the center welcomes patients from the CIS states these days. They pay for all the costs of their treatment. Such surgeries are less expensive in Belarus than in leading European countries. For instance, it costs USD 30,000-35,000 to transplant a liver, USD 30,000-50,000 to transplant a heart, USD 6,000-13,000 to transplant a kidney, USD 17,000-70,000 to transplant bone marrow. The President believes that if there is a demand among foreign citizens and they are ready to pay for the treatment, this area should be expanded.

The head of state was informed that the opening of the organ and tissue transplantation center advances surgeries to a brand new level. 2009 saw the first transplantations of the heart and the kidney-pancreas complex, the first three transplantations of kidneys from relatives to children. This year has seen 121 transplantations, including 17 heart ones, 83 kidney ones and 21 liver ones. The organ and tissue transplantation center boasts the latest equipment that has allowed increasing the number of high-tech surgeries. Oleg Rummo said that they had lost only one patient. The fact testifies that Belarusian transplantology is rather advanced. The center cooperates with colleagues in the CIS states (Russia, Ukraine) and non-CIS states, raising the qualification of Belarusian specialists. Belarusian children are no longer sent abroad for liver transplantation. In addition, Belarusian medics assimilate new technologies and perform conservative surgeries.

Alexander Lukashenko examined the center, visited the transplantation unit, the cell technology unit, diagnostic labs, organ and tissue reception units, the surgery unit. The President talked to those who were waiting for their surgeries and those who had had them already. Alexander Lukashenko visited the center’s conference hall to see a real time Internet broadcast of a surgery on a liver. The clinic is the first facility in Belarus that has classrooms where students can see Internet broadcasts of surgeries in real time.

The President said that the government will not spare money to develop this area of healthcare. “We are not that poor. We will give this industry an opportunity to develop,” said the head of state. “We will not spare money to rescue people”. Yet the President pointed out that it is necessary to seek enthusiasts, the doctors who are willing to develop Belarusian transplantology.